Jim Carrey doesn't appear to be the huge box office draw he was years ago, but he's still one of the bigger names in big screen comedy. As such, one notices when Carrey does something other than the PG-13 vehicles with which he instantly rose to fame in the mid-1990s.

I'm not referring to his made-up, motion capture, and voiceover work in family-friendly adaptations like How the Grinch Stole Christmas, A Series of Unfortunate Events, A Christmas Carol, and Horton Hears a Who!. Such films may or may not utilize Carrey's signature rubber-faced talents; either way, recognizable properties like those find an audience.

Beyond them, the actor has picked some projects you wouldn't expect of him, which tend to perform modestly in theaters whether warmly received (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) or not (The Number 23). Carrey's latest film, the R-rated independent comedy I Love You Phillip Morris, gave him by far his all-time lowest gross ever as a leading man, with a barely $2 million domestic total that, even ignoring over twenty years of inflation, pales next to Earth Girls Are Easy's 1989 take. It should be pointed out that Phillip Morris, which has absolutely nothing to do with the similarly-named international tobacco company, only played in 100 theaters nationwide, a third as many as Earth Girls.

One doesn't second-guess the limited release approach taken on Phillip, but that raises the question of why. As a charming scoundrel, Carrey is playing to type. Though dealing with crime and punishment, the movie is not really that dark a comedy. And those numbers weren't bad for the theater count; they could have been the start of a gradual rollout. Perhaps the biggest reason why the movie didn't expand more is because it centers on a homosexual romance.

Carrey plays Steven Russell, a Virginia Beach sheriff with a wife (Leslie Mann) and young daughter (Alyssa Tate). He's got a secret, though: he's gay and acting on those feelings. A car accident causes him to come out of the closet, which liberates him personally but threatens him financially. Being gay, he explains, is expensive. To have the kind of money required of his fashionable new lifestyle, Steven becomes a con man, dabbling in credit card schemes and insurance fraud. The latter gets him arrested and sentenced to a Texas prison, where he meets the titular object of his affections (Ewan McGregor), a sensitive Southern naif whose prolonged car rental earned him a theft of service conviction.

It's love at first sight for the two men, and Steven uses his shrewd instincts to demonstrate his feelings for Phillip, getting them assigned to the same jail cell (where the top bunk goes unused) and arranging for a noisy neighbor to stop keeping them up at night. Even when they are separated and forced to communicate by a written note exchange network, it's not long until a sketchily bailed Steven poses as Phillip's lawyer to secure his release.

On the outside, life is good for the two lovers, and Steven fudges his way into a new job at a medical insurance company. There, he seizes an opportunity to become secretly wealthy, accruing interest on briefly dormant funds to the tune of millions of dollars. Steven's trails of paper and lies catch up to him, putting him on the run and also threatening unwitting Phillip with accomplice status.

I Love You Phillip Morris opens with the claim "This really happened", followed by "It really did." That seems to excuse writers John Requa and Glenn Ficarra (Bad Santa, Cats & Dogs) for the haphazard structure and dizzying logic of this far-fetched film that marks their directorial debut. Adopted Steven finds his birth mother in a bit that goes nowhere. He commits one white-collar crime after another,

improbably falling upward into a successful unlicensed legal career and a bizarrely lucrative embezzlement gig. Research reveals that Requa and Ficarra are playing less loosely with the facts than anyone would guess, and what true-life comedy doesn't embellish a little?

The film falters not from fabricated storytelling but from low entertainment value. The revelation that Steven is gay comes ten minutes in, with him in the throes of sweaty anal sex. That sense of humor, designed as much to shock as to amuse is what soured Bad Santa and what renders this a pretty joyless affair as well. That Steven and Phillip are gay is not incidental; it's a running joke. Gay people are funny is what the film seems to reiterate throughout, implying that only uncomfortable homophobes won't be laughing. But you needn't be prejudiced not to enjoy the sight of men frequently getting sexual. The crude gags wouldn't be any more or less funny if one was a woman.

As in any story, this one's characters are not meant to reflect human behavior at large and it's possible (though doubtful) that the film is doing justice to the real personalities it's based on. Still, one can't help but cringe at the portrayal of gay men as mesh-pantied sex fanatics always locking lips and quick to unzip one another's fly. If there was more to the central relationship than these broad jokes, it might feel like the film was having a laugh with gay people, instead of at them, but this is a comedy, and for an independent comedy, it has a bare minimum of drama and pathos. Requa and Ficarra fare no better with most other targets, such as Mann's devout Christian wife, a short-tempered black inmate, a sermonizing cab driver, and a frustrating sand trap.

Carrey tries hard, but can't earn his con artist protagonist sympathy and a tasteless climactic twist should eliminate any audience good will developed before it. McGregor does not lend his love interest much depth, suggesting that the chance to act across from Jim Carrey and recycle his adequate Southern accent were incentive enough to sign on.

I Love You Phillip Morris premiered at the Sundance Film Festival back in January 2009 and proceeded to open in many parts of the world throughout 2010. After several missed dates and delays, the film finally made its American debut in December from acquirer Roadside Attractions, whose video partner Lionsgate brings the movie to DVD and Blu-ray this week.

Though it's a reasonably low-budget film ($13 million), I Love You Phillip Morris looks terrific on DVD. Lionsgate's 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer is perfectly clean, sharp, and detailed. It's tough to imagine the Blu-ray's higher resolution adding much over this fantastic standard definition presentation. Likewise, the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is more noticeable and satisfying than a typical comedy. Steven's narration is a commanding center channel presence, while atmosphere and other dialogue fill out the soundfield to nice effect. This isn't immersive like sci-fi action, but it's livelier than most movies.

BONUS FEATURES, MENUS and PACKAGING

Extras begin with a filmmaker audio commentary by writers/directors John Requa and Glenn Ficarra, producers Andrew Lazar and Far Shariat, director of photography Xavier Pιrez Grobet, and chief lightning technician Max Pomerleau. Assembling six speakers ensures few lulls and little chance that you'll know who's talking at any given time.

This full discussion reveals some minutiae about the film (like obviously CGI penis clouds) and the true story it's based on. The group likes to point out things they could only get away with on an independent film. It's a mediocre track from which little of note is shared.

"The Making of I Love You Phillip Morris (11:50) is a pretty standard featurette, which complements the usual talking heads bits with some candid on-set footage. Perhaps its most distinctive features are giving a lot of time to distant fourth-billed actor Rodrigo Santoro and letting Ewan McGregor briefly talk about meeting the real Phillip Morris.

Next up is a reel of seven deleted scenes, running 16 minutes and 45 seconds. There are a few additional exchanges between Steven and Jimmy (Santoro) plus an unfinished scene of Steven and Phillip weathering a storm at sea. Nothing too remarkable surfaces here from the cutting room floor.

Rounding out the discs are a red band internet trailer (2:41), a green band theatrical trailer (2:26), and a red band theatrical trailer (2:32), all of which promote the film in similar ways, only with racier bits in tact on the red band previews.

The disc opens with oddly-chosen trailers for Good Hair, My Best Friend's Girl, Mystery Tea, and The Winning Season. This lot is repeated by the menu's "Also from Lionsgate" listing.

The animated main menu pops characters, objects, and places up and down in a field to an excerpt of the film's instrumental theme that goes silent after two iterations.

The standard black Eco-Box keepcase is topped by a redundant cardboard slipcover with no inserts.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

I Love You Phillip Morris is fast, easy, and ultimately unsatisfying viewing. Reading up on the real facts of this bizarre story is more fulfilling than watching the film and that is the result of both jumbled storytelling and comedy as determined to shock as to entertain. While it's interesting to see Jim Carrey outside his comfort zone, there's even less entertainment to be had here than in his average star vehicle.

With a terrific feature presentation and a perfectly ordinary collection of extras, Lionsgate's DVD gets the job done better than the film it holds.